Iowa officials fudged the numbers on coronavirus infections at meatpacking plant: report

On Wednesday, The Daily Beast reported that Iowa Health Department officials massaged the coronavirus infection numbers at a Tyson Foods meatpacking plant in Columbus Junction.

"The agency announced on May 5 that the Tyson Foods pork processing plant in Columbus Junction had 221 infected employees," reported Blake Montgomery. "But, Tyson managers had told state officials days before that 522 workers of the roughly 1,300 at the facility had tested positive, according to documents obtained by the Associated Press through an open records request. A dozen employees were already hospitalized, and two were dead."

"A spokesperson for Tyson said that the cases announced May 5 reflected only the first round of testing but did not explain why the department would not have used data Tyson itself had provided," the report continued.

Meatpacking facilities have been hit especially hard by the pandemic, exacerbated by questionable decisions from management and local health officials. For instance, in May, Rachel Maddow reported that documents at a facility in Greeley, Colorado revealed that the highest-risk workers would not be tested.